I'm extremely interested in this little board at the moment, the Gigabyte Z97MX Gaming 5. Purportedly it has audiophile-grade components, including noiseless/filtered USB ports for hooking up a USB DAC, and decent onboard chips too. Has anyone verified the quality of said chips vs an ASUS Xonar Essence STX or USB DAC?
No idea, but I wouldn't expect anything close to Audiophile. TBTH, the word "Audiophile" is very subjective and its definition varies for one person to another. About DAC, I wouldn't use something that is bus powered for an audiophile use. A proper, dedicated, linear and filtered PSU is the way to go and is often bigger than the amplifing section itself. I guess that this Gigabyte is a step-up compared to regular embedded sound, but do not expect too much from it.
There are a few positive posts about the filtered USB on headfi: http://www.head-fi.org/t/693825/a-motherboard-with-usb-dacs-in-mind Also some people as pretty positive about modern onboard audio (albeit in hushed voices ). If it is well isolated and uses a good dac I don't see a reason why onboard sound can't be of a high standard.
Because of all the interference and electromagnetic noise inside a computer . Now, my standard is pretty high regarding audio ... so this might fit the needs of 99.5% of the users here, excluding me
While we're on the subject, how would this compare to what's on the Asus Z97 line? I was looking at the VII Impact in particular.
The words 'Audiophile' and 'Snake Oil' almost rhyme. I have my doubts as to this being any more than a box-ticking exercise in the endless quest to differentiate motherboards.
